


Reflecting

by Kaoupa



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 11:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20929214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoupa/pseuds/Kaoupa
Summary: Pearl's past is not exactly clean, and there are plenty of places where guilt or shame could come from.The thing is, there is no place where some of her issues can be justified by any amount of guilt or shame.





	Reflecting

**Author's Note:**

> I want to be clear, this isn't meant as Pearl-Bashing. This is just a Mid-Season One observation/rant on her prejudice towards humanity at the time, and how it stacks up with what we learn later about her.
> 
> I don't own Steven Universe.

It was a fairly normal day in the Temple. Well, normal except that Greg was there - after it had started raining earlier, Greg had come over, citing the cold and wet as “taking their toll on him.” While Pearl had protested letting him inside, Garnet (and Steven’s puppy dog eyes) had overruled her.

She had still, at best, treated him rather coldly as he sat there, strumming his guitar. Steven had gone out with Garnet and Amethyst for a rather minor mission - for some reason, Garnet had told Pearl to stay behind with Greg.

The previously-hidden dismissiveness and hostility in Pearl’s voice and words, after that, became far more pronounced.

Greg, mostly, ignored it. 

But that didn’t mean he didn’t hear it.

And that he wasn’t thinking about it.

  
  
  


After Pearl’s latest thinly-veiled condescension, Greg finally spoke. “Y’know, I was thinking of something.” His voice was oddly calm.

“What would that be.”

“My life as a kid.”

“And what does that have to do with what we were talking about?” Pearl had already started to mentally dismiss the conversation from her mind.

“Well, for starters, I guess it has to do with my parents. They… weren’t really the best caretakers out there.” Greg didn’t give any more details.

For once, Pearl made no comment. She had had more than her fair share of bad experiences with people who… shouldn’t really have been watching others.

“And well, after I moved out, I tried to get as far away from them as I could. For obvious reasons, I mean. Physically, and mentally. I tried… well, when I’m taking care of Steven, a lot of the stuff I do is just me asking myself and doing what they wouldn’t have done.”

Pearl felt a sense, as bizarre as it was, of camaraderie with Greg Universe.

“And well, I was thinking of all the stuff that Rose told me about you, when she was still here. About… Homeworld.”

Pearl felt her breath catch. She knew Rose had, for some reason trusted this human, but had she gone so far as to tell him who they had once been?!

“I am pretty sure you weren’t, well… Rose’s…” Greg’s wording left Pearl unsure whether or not to be worried. “But I was thinking about stuff related to that, I guess. To that, and to my parents.”

Pearl snorted. “I fail to see how Homeworld-” she shuddered “-could be related to your apparently lacking former guardians.”

“Well, I guess they’re similar in how they treated us, you know? Or, well, how we were treated by them.”

Pearl was about to reply dismissively again to him, this human who was assuming that his experiences could match up to hers.

Greg cut her off before she ever got there, though. “But you know something? I don’t think how we reacted to what they did to us is similar at all.”

“And what does that mean?”

Greg gave her an odd look. She wasn’t sure that she had ever seen it on him before. “Rose told me that… Pearls are the lowest type of gem there is on Homeworld, right? Basically, you served whoever it was you were…” 

Greg seemed to struggle for a second before he all but spat out the next word. “MADE… for. And well, I doubt that sort of thing is going to be good for anyone who is on the underside of it. You… probably had it really rough with whoever your mistress was before you met Rose, I bet.”

Pearl chose her next words very carefully. “And my past matters to you why?”

“Because I wanted to understand why you were acting like you do to me and other humans all the time. And if I’m honest? I still don’t get it.” Greg frowned. “What did you go through that turned you into someone this  _ blind _ ?”

“I can see perfectly! Better than you ever could!” Pearl snapped back.

“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” Greg countered. “You’re always doing this! You’re putting me down! You’re putting Amethyst down! You insult humans every time you get a chance, it seems like!”

“I do not insult humans every chance I get! You are being delusional!”

“Greg just shook his head. “You’re doing it again! You’re making it seem like it’s my fault! You can’t even admit you might have a problem! You’re acting like my parents did!”

“I helped save Earth!” Pearl wasn’t sure how to compare herself to Greg’s parents (since she’d never met them), but the rest of his arguments were aggravating her more than she’d like to admit.

“And that’s great! But it doesn’t mean that you can keep acting like this, Pearl!” Greg took it in stride. “I always heard that the best way to judge someone is to look at how they treat the people they see as their inferiors, not their equals or superiors. You were apparently once one of the most inferior gems there was, Rose said! And you’re acting a lot like I’m pretty sure any slave owner would act, on Earth or Homeworld! If what Rose said is true, then you of all people should understand how much it hurts when you look down on other people and treat them like their opinions don’t matter and they’re less important than you!”

“I am NOTHING LIKE THEM!” Pearl screamed, waving her spear in the air.

“Then act like it!” Greg countered.

Pearl snarled and stalked forward.

Greg didn’t move. “All right then, get it over with if you want to.”

Pearl halted almost midstep. Greg went on.

“I don’t have any weapons! I’m defenseless, there’s nobody watching. And I just insulted you.” Greg sat down, seemingly oblivious to his potentially impending impalement. “You said you were nothing like them.”

It was several seconds before he spoke again. “So prove it. Be a good person. Better than all the slave owners from wherever you come are, when they decide they want a new model of Pearl.” He shrugged “Or don’t. Kill someone who’s defenseless, not fighting back, and isn’t an enemy. Prove that you aren’t who you say you are, when it comes down to it.” He looked her right in the eye. Somehow, he didn’t flinch. 

“And then? Explain it to Garnet, and Amethyst, and Steven. And go the rest of your life knowing it.”

There was quiet.

Then, the sound of whooshing air.

  
  
  


The Warp Pad resonated with the sound of incoming light.

“We’re back!” Steven called through the house, grinning as he saw his home again. “Hi dad! Hi, Pearl!”

“Hey, Scthu-Ball!”

“Hello, Steven.” Pearl replied, not looking up from where she was cooking.

“The house was quiet while we were gone, it seems.” Garnet observed. 

“Yup.” Greg said. “We just talked.”

Amethyst’s voice cut off the conversation, as she looked at a thoroughly wrecked piece of electrical equipment.

“Pearl! The DVD thing’s broken again!”

**Author's Note:**

> I will be frank, looking back, Pearl’s attitude towards humans is… really hypocritical, considering that it is close to an exact reflection of how Pearls are seemingly treated on Homeworld according to the caste system.
> 
> She grew out of it, I will not deny that for a second. But she is… really, I want to punch her earlier self in the face, sometimes.


End file.
